A Novel Spectrophotometric Method for the Determination of Levodopa with the Detection System of Potassium Ferricyanide‐Fe(III)

In this paper, a novel method has been established to determine levodopa with the detection system of potassium ferricyanide‐Fe(III). In the presence of potassium ferricyanide, it has been demonstrated that Fe(III) is reduced to Fe(II) by levodopa at pH 4.0. In addition, the in situ formed Fe(II) reacts with potassium ferricyanide to form soluble prussian blue (KFe^III[Fe^II(CN)₆]). Beer's law is obeyed in the range of levodopa concentrations of 0.01–4.00 μg mL^?1 at the maximal absorption wavelength of 735 nm. The linear regression equation is A = 0.0082 + 0.61365 C (μg mL^?1) with a correlation coefficient of 0.9996. The detection limit (3σ/k) is 9 ng mL^?1, and R.S.D. is 0.73% (n = 11). Moreover, the apparent molar absorption coefficient of indirect determination of levodopa is 1.2 × 10⁵ Lmol^?1cm^?1. The parameters with regard to determination are optimized, and the reaction mechanism is discussed. This method has been successfully applied to determine levodopa in pharmaceutical, serum and urine samples. Analytical results obtained with this novel assay are satisfactory.